As first relayed by beat reporter James Wagner at the Washington Post, the Nationals have officially placed outfielder Bryce Harper on the 15-day disabled list because of a sprained left thumb. Steven Souza Jr. was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse in a corresponding 25-man roster move Sunday to provide outfield depth in Harper’s absence.

Harper suffered the thumb sprain Friday night against the Padres when he dove head-first into third base after a bases-loaded triple in the bottom of the third inning. He underwent an MRI on Saturday and will be examined by a specialist this week. The Nats believe he may have some ligament damage. “Doesn’t look good,” a source told the Post.

Harper, 21, was batting .289/.352/.422 with one home run and nine RBI in 22 games this season.

If the Gnats wind up being buried in the standings again as they did last year, I wonder if the ESPN prognosticators who have, for the second year in a row, handed them the Series before a game was even played will use this injury as an excuse.

Matt Williams was the absolute worst choice they could have made as manager, and his stupidity in benching Harper when he was actually being a smart baseball player is going to lead to more injuries like this.

Again, no one denies the talent on that team. But they play very bad baseball. Talent will win you games against mediocre opposition, but in order to beat the better teams you have to actually play better than they do. That’s what happened last year, and unless that changes, it’s what will happen again this year.

Bryce Harper is made of glass and lives on the DL. That is the story here. I see too many bloggers and writers talking about “Well Matt Williams wanted him to hustle, now SEE what happened?”. That’s not looking at it correctly.

He’s always hurt. Always dinged. Always being checked out or removed from games. Before this it was the quad. Last season it went from the flu to running into the wall and concussion to his knee, to oblique, knee again, flu again. He’s made of glass.